Last night's last quarter final result:Conte's Chelsea Footballers 1. Mourinho's Hatchet Men 0. Unsubstantiated rumours circulating around Manchester is that The Mouth is absolutely livid that Hazard was able to remain, injury free, on the pitch throughout the whole of the game, despite his pre-match instructions; and that Kane was permitted to bully Pogba throughout the game without being remonstrated even once, by the extremely biased referee.

Semi final draw: Chelsea v Tottenham and Arsenal v Manchester City.

I personally wish Spurs had drawn Arsenal, and I cannot imagine a scenario in which Arsenal will make it past Chelsea, and into the final;but more of these semi final matches nearer match days.

One man's opinion.
Should this game prove to be any where near the standards of skill, competitiveness and sportsmanship, (i.e. conduct becoming to a sportsman! ), demonstrated by both sides in their last match up, then true fans, regardless of club loyalties, are in for a very special football treat. A game which would almost certainly have been welcomed by most neutral fans, as the ideal final.
Further, no other EPL teams have come anywhere near matching the high calibre football, and consistency of performance, of either Chelsea or, latterly, Spurs; nor been so consistently entertaining. I am of the view that the winner of this match should be entitled to the end of season bragging rights as being the best footballing team in the EPL, irrespective of which finally emerges as EPL Champions.
I must admit to worrying whether the Spurs players are going to allow their, so far, shocking record at Wembley affect their performance. . Nevertheless, while I have some reservations regarding what I see as a concerning loss of form on the part of Dier, potentially a weakness in defence, and the absence of Danny Rose, as tantamount to Chelsea losing Kante, I pick Spurs to win a tight and exciting match.

One man's opinion.
Assuming Guardiola doesn't succumb to the obvious temptation to field a 'second string' eleven against such proven weak opposition :-" , for Arsenal to come out winners of this match would rate alongside Palace's recent win at Stamford Bridge as the surprise result of this season. Manchester to run out relatively easy winners

Congratulations to Chelsea on winning a very entertaining match.
Antonio Conte is proving to be an excellent manager who learns from any mistakes he makes on the way, rather than churning out excuses.
Leaving Eden Hazard & Diego Costa on the bench at the started negated any possibility that Spurs could do a Manchester United style stifling job on his side. Any other approach has not turned out too well for the opposition this season - as it didn't in this case.
Spurs have been one of the most entertaining sides of this season though & I hope that both the manager & players can be kept together for another go next year!! They are a young side & could challenge at the top for more than a few years..

Guilty, although I DID select the correct adjectives . Probably a fair deal of wishful thinking involved in my 'reasoned' thinking ; after all I have been waiting over half a century for some meaningful success, and time is fast running out for me, if not for Spurs [-o< .
However I must say I was suddenly brought back to the real world of modern football, immediately prior to the start of the game, when the starting, and bench line ups of the respective teams were shown. Chelsea has a squad far superior in depth , quality & experience, and have access to far greater financial resources , than have Spurs; who simply didn't have the quality of players on the bench, o match those Chelsea were able to introduce in the critical last half hour. In the final analysis, that was the difference between the two, which enabled Chelsea to emerge from the match, victorious. That Spurs undoubtedly played the better football will be of little consolation to the Spurs players.
Basically, I expect the same scenario to be repeated in tonight's second semi final. Arsne Wenger has been performing miracles for years, but there is a limit to what even he can achieve. In fact he is far worse off than Pochettino, in that he has , with two or three exceptions, a very mediocre squad of players of even lesser depth and ability than that of Spurs, and certainly of less commitment. Faced with the might of the Manchester City squad, I think Arsenal will have performed well if they are able to make this a truly competitive match. As to Arsenal's chances of winning, I would put them as equal to that of Crystal Palace beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge

Two important games where the match officials had a big say.....
1.Chelseas penalty to make it 2-1.......reckless challenge by Son but he appeared to pull out with Moses diving over him without any contact.
2.Citys disallowed goal.....it looks as though the ball didn't go out and Aguero's "goal" should have stood.With him scoring again just after the hour mark it would have put City 2-0 up and too much for Arsenal to claw back ??

Both very difficult decisions for the officials to call but with video technology being allowed at least you would know the right decision would be made !

Just when I thought our chance had passed,you go and save the best for last.

With the 18th. minute red carding of Vertonghen last Sunday, the lynch pin of Arsenal's defence, it would take a brave man, (or an idiot!), to forecast a result of anything other than a second trophy for Conte & his Chelsea Worriors. Perhaps the club should apply to the FA for the aforesaid referee's name to be engraved on the winners medals to commemorate his contribution to their upcoming victory!!

mathusalah80 wrote:With the 18th. minute red carding of Vertonghen last Sunday, the lynch pin of Arsenal's defence, it would take a brave man, (or an idiot!), to forecast a result of anything other than a second trophy for Conte & his Chelsea Worriors. Perhaps the club should apply to the FA for the aforesaid referee's name to be engraved on the winners medals to commemorate his contribution to their upcoming victory!!

Come On Mat,Wake Up it WASN'T Vertonghen,It was infact KOSCHELNY And it was the ONLY Decision that the referee ( Michael Oliver ) Could & Did take at the time....

mathusalah80 wrote:Come On Mat,Wake Up it WASN'T Vertonghen,It was infact KOSCHELNY And it was the ONLY Decision that the referee ( Michael Oliver ) Could & Did take at the time....

I do agree with you 743,for an edifimicated man, my spelling is appalling! :-"
As to your opinion on Oliver's decision, referees decisions, are always a VERY subjective, and heated topic, as you personally have been known to frequently demonstrate on this thread in matches involving the team placed seventh this season! :-"

Having watched the badly mistimed tackle a couple of times I do think it was not more than a yellow , but there again, if he had been shown a yellow, I'm sure he would have made an extra effort to show the customary "flag le blanc"' before the cup final

stattointhailand wrote:Having watched the badly mistimed tackle a couple of times I do think it was not more than a yellow , but there again, if he had been shown a yellow, I'm sure he would have made an extra effort to show the customary "flag le blanc"' before the cup final

Come On Statts.....A Miss Timed Tackle,He Had both feet off the ground flew in from about 3 Yards taking Valencia Out, He was lucky he never broke the mans leg or worse...Mistimed tackle...You Certainly are joking aren't You ???

Local Channel 7 have been showing FA Cup games to date. Hopefully this will continue for the final. I tend to watch on True Visions #35 and opt for the English audio button. I see BEIN SPORT4 are showing the Ajax v United game as are PPTV #36.